Here’s an article which claims that paraben-free cosmetics are gaining popularity. They say that it is due to consumer demand but I suspect there are other more significant forces.

1. Fearmonger press releases. Whenever someone writes about awful things in cosmetics, they always cite paragons. But when consumers are asked about them, they don’t even know what a paraben is. The press attention gets the attention of cosmetic marketing departments who ask their formulators to remove paragons.

2. Raw material suppliers. They want to expand their sales and paragons are relatively inexpensive. If they can get formulators to switch to a more expensive ingredient, that will make more money for them.

I doubt that paragons will ever be completely removed from cosmetics because they are safe & effective. Plus the alternatives haven’t been nearly tested as well. But for now getting parabens out of your formula is something you might have to do.

Today we’re going to take a look at a hair gel. This is one of the best selling formulas in the category and may even be worth using as a benchmark for your future hair gel formulation efforts. Also, this formula is pretty typical of hair gels so it should make for a descriptive analysis.

Let’s take a look at Aussie Sydney Smooth Tizz No-Frizz Gel

LOI – Aussie Tizz No Frizz Gel

Water, Laureth 23, PVP, Psidium Guajava Fruit Extract (Guava Extract), Pyrus Malus (Apple) Fruit Extract, Prunus Armeniaca (Apricot) Fruit Extract, Euphrasia Officinalis (Eyebright) Extract, Salvia Officinalis (Sage) Leaf Extract, Fragrance (Parfum), Carbomer, Triethanolamine, Benzyl Alcohol, DMDM Hydantoin, Polyquaternium 4, Disodium EDTA

Real Ingredient Order

The first step in dissecting an ingredient list is to figure out where the 1% line is. This helps give an indication to which ingredients are crucially important. And it can let you get a rough guess as to the amount of each raw material used.

Like most gels, this product is primarily water. Laureth 23 is high up in the list as is the styling polymer PVP. The first obvious claims ingredient is Psidium Guajava Fruit Extract. This most certainly does not have any significant impact on the performance of the gel and it is safe to say every ingredient below PVP is used at levels less than 1%.

If I had to guess at what the ingredient list would look like if it was listed in order of concentration, I think it would look like this. (With guesses at ingredient levels)

Water ~ 94%
Laureth 23 – 2%
PVP – 2%
Carbomer – 0.6%
Fragrance (Parfum) – 0.5%
Triethanolamine – 0.4%
Polyquaternium 4 – 0.4%
Disodium EDTA – 0.3%
DMDM Hydantoin – 0.2%
Benzyl Alcohol – 0.1%
Psidium Guajava Fruit Extract (Guava Extract) – <0.01%
Pyrus Malus (Apple) Fruit Extract- <0.01%
Prunus Armeniaca (Apricot) Fruit Extract- <0.01%
Euphrasia Officinalis (Eyebright) Extract- <0.01%
Salvia Officinalis (Sage) Leaf Extract- <0.01%

What the Ingredients do

There are five types of ingredients in this formulation: Styling polymers, Conditioners, Claims ingredients, gel system, and aesthetic additives.

GEL SYSTEM – This is made up of the Water, Carbomer, and Triethanolamine. From these ingredients alone you can make a gel.

STYLING POLYMERS – To make the gel work to hold hair you need a styling polymer. They use the classic PVP. This ingredient works great (although it also is prone to absorbing water in humid conditions so it can make hair feel sticky).

CONDITIONERS – The Polyquaternium 4 is added to make the PVP film more flexible which will improve the hair feel and polymer performance. It works as a plasticizer.

AESTHETIC ADDITIVES – To make the product more appealing a fragrance is added. The Laureth 23 is likely added to help solubilize the fragrance. For the preservative system you have Disodium EDTA, DMDM Hydantoin and Benzyl Alcohol to help. It would be tough for anything to grow in this system!

CLAIMS INGREDIENTS – To support the brand they add things that sound like they are natural and came from some exotic place. If you didn’t include those extracts it’s unlikely you would notice any difference.

Formula Commentary

Overall, this is a standard hair gel that is going to perform well enough for most any consumer. It may not work as well in high humidity conditions but under normal indoor circumstances it will do great. It will also wash out of your hair easily since PVP is water soluble. Nice job Aussie.

Note the information in this post is just a guess and not based on any information other than my years of  formulating experience. 

To become an expert cosmetic chemist, it is not enough to learn the science of cosmetic raw materials and which ones are compatible or not. Indeed, this information is criticial but another part of the cosmetic formulator job is just as important. Evaluating your prototypes.

Evaluating cosmetic prototypes

We’ve previously written about the importance of trying your own formulations. However, we did not get into the details of what to observe while doing that. Here is a system that you can follow which will help make you a formula evaluation expert.

Step 1 – Pick a benchmark

It is almost never the case that you will be working on a product that is completely new to the market. There is always a market leader that you should be comparing yourself to. This can be a competitive product or one of your own formulations. You just need to pick some product as a starting point. This is the thing you are trying to beat.

If you’re looking for a benchmark, it is always a good idea to look at sales information and see which ones consumers are buying most often. This is a good place to start.

Step 2 – Develop your baseline skills

In 2005, I believe that I had the most shampooed head in America. That year I was working on a new shampoo formula and a conditioner formula. I washed my hair over 1500 times. Yikes! While I did develop some redness and an itchy scalp, I always developed keen senses to differences between formulations. To be able to tell differences you have to experience the products.

Each formulation will be different and you may want to focus on some specific aspect however, there are some general things to start noticing.

For hair products the most important characteristics include…

1. Rinse time – how long is takes to be reomved from hair
2. Flash foam – how fast the foam forms
3. Lather feel – does the lather feel creamy or loose
4. Feel in hair – how does the product feel in the hair
5. Spreadability – how easy is it to move through hair
6. After feel – what does hair feel like after using it
7. Dry feel – when hair dries how does it feel
8. Lasting feel – how does hair feel later in the day

For skin products…

1. Rub in time – how long it takes to disappear
2. Greasiness – how does it feel on skin
3. Tackiness – does skin feel sticky
4. Overall feel – after you’ve applied it how does it feel
5. Whiteness – how does it effect skin color
6. Reapplication time – how long does moisturizing effect last

For each of these characteristics you should develop a rating scale (1-5 or 1-10 works well). Then use your benchmark formula and give ratings for each important characteristic. It’s good to repeat this process and see if your scores stay consistent.

Step 3 – Make prototypes

Once you’ve gotten your baseline skills down, test out one of your prototypes. Ideally, you have created a prototype in which you’ve changed only one variable. This will make it easier for you to identify which ingredient can create a signficant change. If you continually test radically different prototypes it will be more difficult for you to get formulating direction from the results of your test.

Step 4 – Test prototype alone

Just as you did with the baseline sample, you should test your prototype a few times and then rate it for the most important characteristics. Be sure to try and forget what your scores are for the benchmark product. At this point it is not that important to be blinded however, as you’re just trying to see if your new prototype is worth further testing.

Step 5 – Compare samples

Once you find a protytpe that you want to explore further, set up a blinded test and do your evaluation. The key to a blinded test is that you have no way of knowing which samples are which. So, if there are color differences keep your eyes closed when evaluating the product. If there are odor differences try to hold your nose. Ideally, you could match fragrances to eliminate this variable.

You can give ratings for the samples or you can just decide which you like better. If you like your prototype better, great! But don’t celebrate just yet. Re-run the test a couple of times to see if you consistently pick the prototype over the benchmark. If you can’t, then you don’t have an improvement.

Step 6 – Get opinions from others

If you are satisfied that your testing shows your prototype is better, then try it out on a few collegues. Give them samples of your prototype and the benchmark and ask them if they notice any differences. Also, have them pick which they like better. Make it a forced choice.

Step 7 – Revise prototypes

Make revisions to your prototype based on the response you get from your own testing and that of the other people who have tried your cosmetic formulation. You really should try at least half a dozen revisions before being satisfied with any results.

Step 8 – Performance tests

If you are satisfied with your in-use tests, it’s time to do some laboratory performance tests. The specific tests you do depends on the type of product you are making. For cleansing products you’ll want to test foam. For moisturizing products, test moisturization. Color products you test wear. There are just innumerable number of tests you can conduct.

Once your prototype outscores your benchmark, it’s time to move forward and push the product along to development. Congratulations!

Now, just one other thing…don’t forget to do an early stability test.

We’re starting a new feature here on Chemists Corner. It’s called cosmetic science in 300 seconds. It will be a 5 minute video that will quickly explain some aspect of cosmetic science, formulating, testing, or any other cosmetic formulator appropriate topic. To kick it off, here is Surfactants in 300 Seconds.

Surfactants

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWw_5wAsS2w

Transcript

Welcome to Cosmetic Science in 300 seconds brought to you by Chemists Corner.

Today’s topic is surfactants.

Surfactants are one of the most important types of ingredients used in the formulation of cosmetic products. You’ll find them in cosmetics ranging from body washes to skin lotions to eye shadows to toothpaste. Almost every cosmetic you use contains at least one surfactant.

Surfactants have been used by people since the invention of soap back in 2800 BCE. But it wasn’t until late 19th century when sulfonated castor oil was used in the textile industry as a dyeing aid that synthetic surfactants were made. In the 1920′s & 30′s surfactants from long-chain alcohols were created and in the 1950′s and 60′s most of the synthetic surfactants that we use today were introduced.

Some commonly used surfactants include Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, and Glyceryl Stearate.

The term surfactant stands for Surface Active Agent. This refers to the fact that in solutions, surfactant molecules migrate to the surface and align themselves in a manner which reduces surface tension.

The reason surfactants behave in this manner is because of the way their molecule is structured. A portion of the molecule is hydrophilic (or water loving) while another portion is hydrophobic (or water hating). You might also hear them refered to as lipophilic (oil loving) or lipophobic (oil hating).

When a surfactant is mixed with water, the hydrophobic parts of the molecule align themselves as far away from the water as they can.  Simultaneously, the hydrophilic portion of the molecule continues to be attracted to the water. This leads to a variety of different molecular arrangements such as monomers, spherical micelles, tubules, rods, lamellar sheets, and bilayers. The exact structure depends on the type and concentration of surfactant in the solution.

Normally, when oil and water are put together they do not mix nicely but rather stay separated. You can see this in salad dressings. This is because polar materials like water are more compatible with other polar materials while nonpolar materials like oil are more compatible with nonpolar materials.   This has led to the general adage in chemistry “like dissolves like”.

The unique surface properties of surfactants mean that they can be compatible with both the oil phase and the water phase of this solution. This leads to a number of useful applications in cosmetics.

Cleaning – First, surfactants are useful whenever you want to make something that will clean a surface. Water will remove all the water compatible ingredients, but for nonpolar dirt and oil, you need a surfactant to help remove it. These surfactants are called detergents and are found in shampoos and body washes.

Incidentally, surfactants have the added bonus of making foam. Lots and lots of foam.

Emulsions – Since the materials that are useful for cosmetics can be both polar and nonpolar materials, surfactants can be employed to create a mixture that has both. When surfactants are blended into these mixtures they align themselves in the solution to create small particles called micelles. Upon mixing, the particles are dispersed throughout the solution creating an emulsion. Emulsions are the basis for nearly all creams and lotions.

Moisturizing – Some surfactants can attach to the surface of skin and hair to improve the look and  feel so they are frequently added to moisturizing and conditioning cosmetics.  Hair conditioners and skin moisturizers usually contain one or more surfactants.

Aesthetic modifications – Typically, people who use cosmetics want them to be thick or opaque and easy to spread. For cosmetic formulators to create these effects, surfactants such as fatty alcohols can be used.

Preservatives – Finally, some surfactants have one more characteristic that makes them useful in cosmetic products.  They can disrupt the structure of cell walls which means they are able to destroy any disease causing microbes that might grow in the cosmetic.  This makes them useful as preservatives.

As you can see surfactants have a wide range of application in cosmetic formulas.  The technology has not changed much since the late 1960′s but cosmetic raw material manufacturers continue to try to improve.  In the future, surfactants promise to be less irritating, more efficient and produced from more sustainable starting materials.

This brings us to the end of Cosmetic Science in 300 Seconds.  If you want to learn more about cosmetic science and formulating please visit our website Chemists Corner.com.  I’m Perry Romanowski, thanks for watching.

This question was asked on the cosmetic science forum and I thought would make for a good discussion here on the blog.

How do you go about switching ingredient vendors? We want to switch vendors because of lower prices and lower minimums. Can you just switch one ingredient out for another?

Why switch cosmetic ingredient sources

Before we answer, it is a good idea to explain why you would want to have an alternate source for a raw material. There are a number of reasons.

1. Price – You can get the raw material for lower cost. An excellent reason to switch suppliers.
2. Lower minimums – You can buy less of the ingredient. This is particularly important for small businesses.
3. Insurance – If you have a single source, you are at the mercy of your supplier. You should have other sources just in case something goes wrong.
4. Reliability – You need to have a supplier who will be able to reliably fill your orders.

Changing cosmetic raw materials sources

Unfortunately, changing from one source to another is not so simple as just buying from a new source. The primary problem is that just because ingredients have the same name, that doesn’t mean they are the same material. INCI names cover a wide range of mixed materials. Another problem is that suppliers often make raw materials in a different way which can lead to different residual materials in the finished product. These residuals can wreck havoc with your formula.

The bottom line is that you can’t just switch raw materials from one source to another without testing.

How to approve alternate suppliers

To approve a new supplier there are a number of things you need to do. First, you need to make sure the specs for the ingredient match. To do this, you can look at the certificate of analysis (C of A) that the new supplier provides with samples. Compare this to your current spec and note where there are differences. Then you can tell the new supplier changes in the specs that you can make. It may also be easier to just give the new supplier your specs. Remember, specifications are negotiable.

Once you have the specs for the new material, you’ll need to make batches and run some tests. The first test is simply to see what happens to your batch when you use the new raw material. Check the pH, viscosity, appearance, order, and anything else that might be different. You should also conduct performance tests. Finally, if things look good you’ll have to conduct stability tests of the formula in your final packaging. Once you are satisfied that you can’t tell any differences you can start using the new raw material.

Note, it may make sense to make a batch where you blend the new raw material with your current source just to make sure that you can safely blend the two ingredients in the future. Sometimes when you are making a batch you may run out of a raw material and be forced to use something from a different supplier.

Testing depends on material

There are some ingredients where it’s not too risky to use an alternate supplier. Things like Glycerin, Propylene Glycol, and Salt will be so similar that there is little risk in using a different source. But materials like natural ingredients, fatty alcohols, and surfactants are much more risky. For these you’ll want to do a full battery of tests.

Today, I’m going to be speaking to a group of high school students about cosmetic chemistry and what it means to be a cosmetic chemist.  It is my goal to inspire some of these people to go into science and maybe even follow a path to becoming a cosmetic chemist.  It is a fun and interesting career which is largely unknown by college students.

The talk will cover a few topics including…

1. What is a cosmetic
2. What kind of jobs do cosmetic chemists do
3. What do the ingredients do
4. What are some cosmetic myths
5. How to be skeptical

This is a blend of career advice / cosmetic science / and critical thinking training.

I do enjoy giving talks like these because the audiences are always very appreciative.  I remember in high school I was voted the “Best Impromptu Speaker”.   It’s still a source of pride.

In case you are curious, here is a copy of the slides I will be presenting on.

Cosmetic Science presentation

When I first came into the Industry the terms Organic, Natural, Green and Sustainable kind of jumbled themselves into one niche group, of next generation products. We have previously taken a look at Organic cosmetics and Natural cosmetics, so what about Sustainable?

Sustainable is the synonym of GREEN which refers to manufacturing processing as opposed to Natural and Organic ingredients that are categorized by agriculture, originating source or the lack of synthetic ingredients. These pronounced differences provide more opportunity for growth in Sustainable products than Natural and Organic products in the years to come.

DEFINING AND UNDERSTANDING SUSTAINABILTY

As I understand, Sustainable and Green practices were defined by the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency). I took the following statements directly from their website:

Sustainability is based on a simple principle: Everything that we need for our survival and well-being depends, either directly or indirectly, on our natural environment. Sustainability creates and maintains the conditions under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony, that permit fulfilling the social, economic and other requirements of present and future generations. Sustainability has emerged as a result of significant concerns about the unintended social, environmental, and economic consequences of rapid population growth, economic growth and consumption of our natural resources.

Today EPA aims to make sustainability the next level of environmental protection by drawing on advances in science and technology to protect human health and the environment, and promoting innovative green business practices. Sustainability is important to making sure that we have and will continue to have the water, materials, and resources to protect human health and our environment. The goal of the EPA to promote innovation and Green business practices are outlined in the Twelve Principles of Green Chemistry “Also known as sustainable chemistry -the design of chemical products and processes that reduce or eliminate the use or generation of hazardous substances. Green chemistry applies across the life cycle of a chemical product, including its design, manufacture, and use.”

Please click on the link below for the list of the 12 Principles of Green Chemisty.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR BRANDS, MARKETING, AND FORMULATIONS

Compared to Organic and Natural products, Sustainable products have a more desirable appeal overall. Organic and Natural are limited to a narrow group of ingredients used in a formulation, but Sustainable allows you to choose what part of your product contributes to the goal of sustainability – ingredients, the process of production, packaging, shipping, and anything else that may fit in the 12 Principles of Green Chemistry. Due to innovative processing and the reduction of waste and energy, the savings incurred are passed on to the customer. Unlike Natural and Organic Ingredients that drive the cost of goods up, Sustainable ingredients can actually SAVE money and who does not like to save???

EVERYONE! Not only is it Cost saving, but a greater variety of ingredients exist on the market…synthetic ingredients included, that contribute to ease of formulation and performance. Let us do some simple math: Environmentally friendly + Cost Effective + Performing Formula = Happy consumer that has helped the environment, saved money and looks and feels good emotionally and physically after purchase and use.

SUSTAINABLE FORMULATING

There are many ways to incorporate sustainable practices in your formulations. Cold process formulations save time and energy. Source ingredients and purchase from companies that have adopted Green practices at their plants. Formulate powdered active products that require customer’s to simply add water and/or purchase powder or dry raw materials instead of extracts in carriers. This saves on shipping costs since water and carriers are heavy, use more energy to store, and do not have as long of a shelf life as freeze dried or powdered materials.

THE SUSTAINABLE EXPECTATION

Obviously after our simple math equation we see the idea of sustainability not as a trend to fit a niche group, but a movement, a mind set in innovation that encompasses more than the Cosmetic and Beauty Industry. The philosophy and agenda to etch the mantra “reduce, reuse, recycle”, preservation of the Earth and resources on our conscience, subconsciously has us looking for ways to integrate this in our everyday lives. As a society we have gone from recycling paper, aluminum cans and plastic to LED light bulbs, reusable grocery bags, solar panels, etc as they have come available. So, having the continuation of this philosophy available in our Beauty and Personal Care products speaks to the periphery of the customer.

~Beakers up! ~ Dandizette` Beaute`

There was a question on one of the cosmetic science forums I subscribe to about viscosity. This reader wanted to know whether they needed an “expensive” Brookfield viscometer or whether they could take viscosity readings another way. It turns out there are a variety of choices.

Why measure viscosity

Viscosity is one of those terms that wasn’t covered much in college but tends to be used a lot in the cosmetic industry. We’ve previously writte about fluid viscosity and I would encourage you to read that to get up to speed on what it is and why you would want to measure it. But basically you measure viscosity to ensure your product is of consisten quality and that it remains stable.

How to measure viscosity

In the cosmetic industry the overwhelming instrument of choice for measuring viscosity is the Brookfield Viscometer. Viscosity is measured by looking at the force required to spin a plate through the fluid. All the calculating is done by the instrument.

The Brookfield viscometer is rather simple to use and has a number of benefits over other options including

1. Speed – you can get a reading in less than 2 min
2. Easy clean up – you can get multiple readings fast
3. Reliability – readings are consistent
4. Versatile – you can test lots of different rheologies

Of course, there are some downsides. For shear thinning products your readings might not be accurate due to the drilling effect. And the device needs to be callibrated to give consistent readings. This adds to the cost of operating it, in addition to the >$1500 that it costs up front.

However, if you are a serious formulation chemist you need to have a viscometer and Brookfield makes the industry standard.

Here’s a viscometer in action.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcRvBkuccRA

Alternatives to Brookfield Viscometer

While most every company uses a Brookfield viscometer, there are other options.

For example, there is the Ubbelohde glass capillary viscometer. This is a glass tube made with some curves and bulbs. It has no moving parts and simply requires a stop watch and a vacuume bulb. The fluid is drawn up the tube and the time it takes to flow back down is related to its viscosity. Unlike the Brookfield, there is no issue with shear thinning products. Of course, the major drawback is that it takes 5 to 10 minutes to get a viscosity reading and it would be impractical for most cosmetic labs.

You can see one in action here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIoYM5F14xI

The primary benefit of this option is that it is much less expensive than the Brookfield and it doesn’t require recallibration.

And then there is the Rheometer. This device uses a flat plate in which a small sample of the product is put between. The plate is rotated and the force required for rotating the plate is related to the product viscosity.

This device is easy to use but generally not as accurate as the Brookfield. But for a cosmetic lab, it might be good enough.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cynMI4N7vI

Finally, if you don’t want to pay much but want to have a way of measuring the relative viscosity of your product, you can do something like this device. It is a series of 4 glass tubes that contains liquids of varying viscosity. A metal ball is dropped through the liquid and the time required to flow to the bottom is tracked. This is then related to the product viscosity. It’s a pretty crude method but it works.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9bnX2jlLPM

Viscosity and the cosmetic chemist

Of all the measurements that you will take as a formulating cosmetic chemist, viscosity will be most frequently done. The only readings you might take more often is pH. That’s why to be a great cosmetic chemist you need to know and appreciate the fundamentals of viscosity. And you also have to have a way of measuring it.

Were there any viscosity measuring methods we missed?  Leave a comment below and let us know.

I’ve just started reading a book called Chemistry Connections and it’s quite good so far. One of the questions had to deal with cosmetics and I thought it was an interesting one to discuss.

Why do cold creams feel cold? And more generally, how do you make a cooling sensation in your cosmetic formulation.

Cold creams

Cold creams are typically Water in Oil emulsions. Classic products like Pond’s Cold Cream is a mixture of Mineral Oil, Water, Beeswax, and Ceresin. It also has a thickener, preservative and fragrance. The product is interesting enough because you don’t see a lot of water in oil emulsions on the market. But what about this cooling sensation?

Physics of cooling

It turns out the cooling effect is not a result of any special chemical, it’s just the water. When the cream is put on the skin, water and the fragrance begin to evaporate immediately. Evaporation is an endothermic process meaning it requires heat to happen. The heat is drawn from the skin which produces the cooling effect. Incidentally, this is the same process the body takes advantage of when you are sweating.

While water in the formula can give you the cooling sensation, there are other compounds which can make a much more intense sensation. Ethanol is great for causing that cooling sensation. Menthol, Methyl Salicylate, Eucalyptus and Tea Tree Oil are other examples of materials that can give a cooling effect. Unfortunately, these can also have unwanted side effects like odor or irritation.

For you formulators that are interested in natural formulating there is a beauty summit that is being held in New York on May 14 and 15. At the event you will be able to engage with leading natural players, learn about the key issues and challenges, find the latest consumer insights and be inspired by successful products.

It’s a new event so it just might be worth checking out.

You can find more information here.

Natural Beauty Summit